Socialist members will vote on Thursday, then on January 19, to decide between three candidates for the post of First Secretary: Olivier Faure, craftsman of the left alliance Nupes, faces the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and the mayor of Vaulx -en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, who are more or less opposed to this agreement.
"To win, you have to change," say the signatories of this forum.
For them, "it is around the Socialist Party, not submissive but driving force, that we want to rebuild an ambitious alternative, clearly on the left and clearly credible, to bring hope and block the road to the far right".
"We are carrying a central path, the only one capable of bringing together all socialists today and tomorrow the left in its diversity", they continue, and "our vision is that of an ecological, republican and secular, feminist socialism, humanist and universalist, pro-European, innovative, anchored in all the territories where it draws its inspiration".
They also defend "a socialism which does not confuse radicalism with excess. Which avoids the pitfalls of social-liberalism as well as social-populism. Neither isolated nor erased".
Calling themselves "for the union of the left", and affirming "not to believe in irreconcilable lefts", they underline that the electoral agreement of the Nupes "could respond usefully to the unitary aspiration of the people of the left", but "did not win".
If suspending the Nupes "would be to weaken us" at a time when "the government is seeking to impose a brutal and unfair regression on pensions", they say they are worried that this agreement will force the socialist candidates, during other electoral deadlines, to " withdraw in favor of candidates from other political families".
"For our part it is clear: at the head of the Socialist Party we will defend, for future deadlines, the candidacies of the Socialists", they affirm.
Tuesday morning, another forum brought together 45 parliamentarians (MPs, senators, MEPs) around outgoing First Secretary Olivier Faure.
© 2023 AFP